


Ten Months Too Many

by Hollenka99



Series: Creator AU [4]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen, Pain, Soul Bond, Torture, Trauma, references to trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-25 07:12:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18256340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hollenka99/pseuds/Hollenka99
Summary: Jackie is stuck with Anti for 10 months but he's not the only one being hurt.





	Ten Months Too Many

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on I'm_The_Doctor (Bofur1)'s concept of soul bonds. A good introduction would be If The Sky Comes Falling Down which you can find here:
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/15621963
> 
> I wanted to explore Marvin and Jackie's relationship and thought this would be a cool way to do so. The only thing that's canon to the Creator AU is what Anti is doing to Jackie and his return. The rest is hypothetical.

When Jackie comes to ask if he knows a silencing spell, neither of them realise it’s the last time they’ll see each other in 10 months. That doesn’t mean Marvin feels nothing during that time.

He gets a headache later that evening, focused on the side. He assumes it is nothing serious. It certainly doesn’t make him question whether Jackie is safe. The teenage boy’s absence does that.

He’ll experience random pains throughout the months his friend is gone. Sometimes it will simply be a sharp aching. Other times, he’ll be left wondering if Jackie is still in one piece.

It’s not quite a fortnight after the house loses part of its life that Marvin is sent to the ground. He’s practising some offensive spell when his left shin shatters. The right follows suit swiftly after. Over his stuttered breathing, he hears Jack yelling for Henrik’s help. The doctor finds nothing physically wrong.

They have no idea that the superhero could have come home that night if he wasn’t under Anti’s constant surveillance.

The first time the magician experiences unbearable hollowness is on Christmas Day. It’s not the first time he’s had these fake stomach cramps. The one on Christmas grows in intensity until it jarringly vanishes. All that remains is emptiness within himself. Jack promises him the holiday isn’t supposed to be this terrible. He swears next December will see all five of them, plus whoever may join the household in 2017, happy and without need to worry. Jack should stick to making promises he can actually keep.

February brings the worst agony thus far. He’s glad he’s nearly mastered a spell to render himself temporarily mute. Jack may be awake at all times but Marvin would hate to wake anyone. An invisible force is tearing him apart, joint by joint. Being put back together isn’t much better.

When Jackie later tearfully admits to betraying them, Marvin doesn’t blame him for cracking after that round of torture. He’d probably break before it got that far.

Henrik is the one to delicately question whether Marvin didn’t perform some spell on Jackie that allowed him to know when he’s hurt. Perhaps it was after Jackie’s near death experience the previous August, he suggests. No. If Marvin did anything like that, he would know. He greatly doubts he would be able to do it subconsciously either, especially before the start of November. The concept of him being connected to Jackie is daunting. If it’s true, he doesn’t want to even imagine what becoming hollow signifies.

There are nights where Jack finds him sobbing in the dark and mealtimes where the food turns cold before him. He knows Jack is doing his best to be sympathetic. Henrik, on the other hand, is occasionally too analytical, too much of a doctor, to see him as more than an undiagnosed patient. He doesn’t know how he can make them understand he can’t sleep when he’s on edge and doesn’t see the point in eating if his twisting gut will just trigger his dinner to make a u-turn. Even Bastet affectionately curling up on his lap doesn’t help.

Jackie fades slowly in March. Marvin almost wishes it would come about sooner. If he really was sensing Jackie’s suffering, this time it’s being drawn out over weeks. As soon as Marvin recovers from one bout of numbness, another follows days later. It carries on like this until late April.

He’s out of commission on Jackie’s birthday. It’s a culmination of everything Jackie has gone through since November. The burns are new. Marvin’s burned himself by accident before with his own magic. He knows what the searing sensation across various parts of his body is mimicking. When he gets the chance to breathe between phantom pains, Marvin’s heart goes out to Jackie. At least, Marvin attempts to comfort himself, at least he isn’t empty.

That returns on his own birthday. Worst of all, he has no-one to help him through it. Jack is comatose and Henrik is presumably with Jackie. Chase is busy being badgered by Sean about something or other. As for Sean? Yeah, Marvin would rather subject himself to everything Jackie had been through these past nine months a hundred times over than even think about interacting with their creator.

It hurts that time. It’s not instant but at least Anti didn’t prolong it like whatever he did in the spring. He only wishes Jackie could have lost consciousness faster. It would have easier for the both of them. He doesn’t understand why his insides don’t feel right for a while. He’s not particularly eager to either.

Then September comes. With it brings a now 17 year old boy who is fatally malnourished, a remnant of the lively kid Marvin once knew. He and Chase somehow manage to give him what they hope is the right care. If only Henrik was here to correctly direct them.

Soon, Marvin will have to explain all that happened in the 10 months Jackie was gone. Soon, Marvin will have to show him the damage done from the previous month. Soon, Marvin will have to look his friend in the eye and admit he’s escaped hell only to return to a household that’s greatly in disarray.

For now, Marvin is content with curling up besides his friend, one paw gently resting on his stomach. Jackie’s safe again. The magician is better prepared than he was in November. There’s no chance in hell he’ll allow any more harm to come to Jackie.

He’s more at peace than he has been in months. The only thing can make this better is if Jack and Henrik were here too.


End file.
